Pages

Saturday, August 10, 2013

The Campervan: Day 10 - Boulton Campsite - Lake Louise

For the first time our wake-up alarm was neither the cold or the carbon monoxide alarm so we enjoyed a mild sleep in. The drive back to Canmore was relatively fast as most of the trails were closed or far to long to do in an hour or so. At least we were treated to a much more 'romantic' moose sighting and we even saw more down the road. It became clear that wildlife spottings were often at the same place as parked cars along the road.

We stopped at Kananaski Village which is another tourist spot in the Rockies but we were disappointed to find that the village is nothing more than a triad of hotels surrounding a golf course and nobody actually lives there. The trail around the 'village' had some nice views but the paved roads scared us and the golf course scarred the view. There was one walk in the area called Grotto Canyon Walk which took us straight past a huge mineral processing plant which definitely took any sense of wilderness and silence out of the picture.

We quickly escaped and headed back to Canmore and onwards to Lake Louise via the Bow Valley Parkway. The Bow Valley Parkway is the quieter route to Lake Louise and part of the parkway is closed from 6pm-9am for wildlife crossings. We did some viewpoints but rushed on to Johnston's Creek on the other side of the closed section. It was a pretty touristy trail and we managed to complete in in no time at all so headed the 3.2km walk onwards to the Paint Pots. This was described as a "backcountry" track and was just gravel and uphill but not too rough - that was until the snow and ice started to pile up and Anne and I decided to turn around before the end for our joints sake.

We sped on to Lake Louise as Ryan's school friend who had also been gallivanting through Canada was coming to meet us there. The Bow Valley Parkway wasn't as spectacular as we had expected but we had been spoilt over the past few days. The campground in Lake Louise wasn't manned but I took a deposit envelope just in case as I'd rather pay the fee of $27 than the fine of $500. The electricity didn't work but we were at least there somewhat legally. The evening was spent cooking dinner and catching up before crashing back into bed as we were hoping to sneak out of the campsite before someone asked for money.